How To Save A Life
by GrissomzGal
Summary: Fic based on the title song. E/O. Sorta angsty, with some friendhsip involved to.


So this is my first fic in a while, have had writer's block when it came to fics for the sire. This is one is based on the song 'How To Save A Life' by The Fray. Hope it's good, as haven't been writing in a while as I said, and I think I'm a bit rusty. Hopefully it's good. I'm sure you'll tell me what you think, either good OR bad. Enjoy!!

He stormed through the precinct, working himself up more and more each second, getting into a rage just with the thought of it. His baby... his little girl...and him... that smarmy, sneaky son of a bitch. How could he?! HIS daughter?! How dare he touch her?! He had known from the moment that he had laid eyes on the bastard ther was going to be trouble. He was far too perfect to be true. Good looks, good manners and good intentions? No way. He had known that was impossible in a guy of that age. No way. He should have told her, he should sat her down and said ' Maureen, that guy is no good. You don't wanna waste your time with him.' But then, he mused, she would never have listened to him anyway. She just thought that he was paranoid. Just an old man who had no idea about how today's world worked. More often than not he was right, but she'd still never give in and admit it.

Some guy walked into him, and Elliot stopped, turning on the guy. "Watch it!!"

"Hey, don't get onto me!! You walked into me, buddy!" the guy, a tall guy, quite beefy, with short black hair and a small goatee beard, replied.

"Listen here," Elliot got up in his face, grabbing the guy's greasy grey t-shirt. "I am not your buddy, and I swear, if I hear one more..."

"Elliot!!" Olivia's voice rang along the corridor, and he sighed, clenching his fists and his jaw. "Elliot, lay off him!! Calm down!!"

Elliot loosened his grip on the guy, glaring at him as Olivia apologised to him and pulled Elliot over to the side. Everyone around them stopped staring, but there were still some whispers. He'd gotten used to that, people talking about him. He'd done enough stupid things in his life, and he'd been wrongly accused of enough to know that it was all just gossip, and he'd taught himself to zone out and block the stupid rumours out. It was just as well, because if he had heard some of the things people said about him, he'd probably have been locked up.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Olivia asked quietly yet furiously.

"Leave it," he shook his head. She'd put up with him for long enough, and lately he'd been trying to ease off the insults and the tempers when he was with her because in his heart he knew that she had never done anything to deserve it. She had only been good to him, and he wanted to return the gesture without fighting in-between.

"No Elliot," Olivia shook her head, looking right into his eyes. He could tell that she was angry - the normally brown orbs were now dangerously dark. "You've been acting up one hell of a lot lately, and I'm not letting you make a mess of it all, again. No way."

"Olivia, please," he sighed, looking away.

"Tell me what's up with you!!" she exclaimed.

"LAY OFF ME OLIVIA!!" he screamed at her and stormed off.

She let out a sigh and went to chase after him, but as he walked, she knew she was never going to catch him. "ELLIOT!! COME BACK HERE!! ELLIOT!!" He turned left, right out of the place, and she shook her head. They had the mother of a victim waiting to speak to them, and she could have done with him there, but she knew perfectly well that he wasn't coming back. She turned to her right, psyching herself up to be dumped right into the middle of fear and blame. Fear of losing your child, she could understand, and she knew that everyone needed someone to blame, she just didn't know if she could handle being told that it was her fault that another little girl had gone missing. She was trying as hard as she could to solve the case, the all were, but it just happening. The guy was smart, and he knew what he was doing enough to know to cover his tracks. She was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to get him. If there was a point in her actually turning up every morning only to come home at night after making no progress at all.

_**Step one you say we need to talk  
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk  
He smiles politely back at you  
You stare politely right on through  
Some sort of window to your right  
As he goes left and you stay right  
Between the lines of fear and blame  
You begin to wonder why you came**_

That evening, Elliot was sitting at home, staring at the baseball game on telly. It was a Boston Cincinnati game, but he wasn't interested. He wasn't doing too well. The thing with Maureen and that guy was still playing on his mind, but it wasn't just that. Kathy was being really difficult, and he'd not seen his kids for about two and hald weeks now. The cases at work were piling up, and with each year that went by the criminals seemed to get meaner, nastier and harder to find. Everything was getting on top of him, and he didn't know how he was going to get out of the rut that he was in.

As he stared at the screen of his television, there was a banging sound, and he jumped, away to reach for his gun, but then he realised that it was just his door and he sighed, getting up with his beer in hand. He got a shock when he saw Oliva standing there in the rain, two coffees in hand, waiting patiently.

"Liv, I..." he started to speak but then he realised he didn't know what to say.

"I got you coffee," she thrust one of the coffee cups into his free hand and walked past him into the living room. "I think we have to speak about today, Elliot."

"I don't want to talk about it," he shook his head.

"Relax," she shook her head.

"No, I don't want to speak about it Olivia," he stated, walking away.

"Elliot, come on, sit down. It's only a talk," she stated.

He paused before smirking a little, shaking his head. "But it's not just a talk is it though? You want to find out what's wrong so you can fix me, and I don't need fixed, alright?"

"I'm not trying to fix you," she shook her head.

"So what are you trying to do then?!" he raised his voice.

"You know, Elliot, I don't even know why I came!" Olivia stated, standing and grabbing the coffee cup back from her partner.

"Yeah well neither do I!" he shouted as she walked.

"There's no point, not with you Elliot. You're not worth the effort, you know that?!" she grimaced as she walked out. She hadn't meant that. He was her best friend, of course he was worth the effort, but she just couldn't handle it. She had gone out of her way to come over to try and help him, and he'd thrown it back at her. She was mad, really mad, but she was closer to him than she'd ever been to anyone else before. She wanted to help him out of the place he was, but he obviously didn't want the help. She'd offered her hand and he'd refused. She decided that as long as he was going to act up, she'd leave him be and wouldn't even try with him.

_**Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend  
Somewhere along in the bitterness  
And I would have stayed up with you all night  
Had I known how to save a life **_

The next day at work, Olivia walked in to find that Elliot's stuff was there, but the man himself wasn't at his desk. Fin was wandering past, so she asked him where her partner was, and he simply looked over at Cragen's office. She got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, and just as she was considering asking Fin or Munch what had happened, the door to the dreaded office slammed open and Elliot stormed out. As he was striding to his desk, he caught sight of Olivia and stared at her.

"Morning Elliot," she smiled slightly.

"Yeah," he simply said, picked up his cup and trudged over to the coffee machine.

Later that day, Elliot hadn't been seen around the place for a while, so Olivia set out on a hunt for him. The last place she checked was the cot, and as she opened the door, she saw him perching on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. Wandering over, she sat slowly down on the bed opposite where he was and gazed at him for a moment or two.

"Leave me alone, alright?" he murmured, and she frowned as she realised that he had been crying. He sounded stuffy and blocked up, and as they sat there, he snffed about 5 times in the space of a minute.

"Ell, listen," she sighed. "I'm not going to leave you alone, because I care way too much about you. Last night was a mistake, I realise that now. I was mad, and I should never have lashed out at you like that. I'm not making any excuses, just apologising. Now I know you don't like talking about things, but you're obviously struggling, and I'm here for you, to help you. I know you, maybe even better than you know yourself, so you have to listen to me this time. Just the once."

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?! I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!!" he shouted at her.

"I heard you," she nodded, keeping her voice even and calm. "But you have one choice now Ell. Just one."

"What's that?" he asked without looking up at her.

"You can either carry on with all this, or you can break with it. You can leave it all behind and move on," she replied. "Your choice. Carry on down this path or leave it."

_**As he begins to raise his voice  
You lower yours and grant him one last choice  
Drive until you lose the road  
Or break with the ones you've followed  
He will do one of two things  
He will admit to everything  
Or he'll say he's just not the same  
And you'll begin to wonder why you came **_

"Leave it," he replied, and she nodded.

"I'm going to hug you now," she said, leaning forward and taking him into his arms. "It's alright honey. It's only going to get better from here."

So that's that. Hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are greatly appreciated - will try to reply to the majority of them if I can. Thanks.

Grissomz-Gal.


End file.
